Brian Walters, President of Liberty Victoria, lambasted the Howard Government for numerous examples of the denigration of human rights and civil liberties in Australia at the annual Eureka Lantern Dawn Walk. The organisers of the Eureka Dawn Lantern Walk appoint a person to highlight current issues on rights and liberties every year.

In 2004 Terry Hicks, the father of David Hicks presently incarcerated in Guantanamo Bay by the USA, was the leading light and proved a controversial figure with Howard and Steven Bracks calling for the withdrawal of the appointment. In the resulting debate it was highlighted that their was a Hicks on the diggings at Eureka and Terry Hicks and his son David are “sons of Eureka”. The political manourvres did not change the appointment, but creative director of the event for several years, Graeme Dunstan, was dropped from the event organisation for 2005.

At 4am on December 3 a small group gathered to commemorate the Eureka Rebellion at the monument in Eureka Park in Ballarat. For the last 4 years a group of people has met on the anniversary of the attack on the Eureka Stockade. This year 24 people gathered in the pre-dawn light, as light rain threatened to dampen the event. As Graeme Dunstan completed placing his beautiful Eureka banners and lanterns around the monument, the rain soon ceased. The Reclaim the Radical Spirit of the Eureka Rebellion banner arrives and is set up on the monument. A circle of people forms from out of the gloom in front of the monument.

Six Eureka Australia Day Medals were awarded to activists whose actions reflect the principles outlined in the Eureka Oath, at a ceremony at Bakery Hill, Ballarat, on Saturday 3 December, the 151st anniversary of the brutal crushing of the Eureka rebellion. Over 500 nominations were received for the award, with the list reduced to ten finalists. Six people accepted the award.

Six Eureka Australia Day Medals were awarded to activists whose actions reflect the principles outlined in the Eureka Oath, at a ceremony at Bakery Hill, Ballarat, on Saturday 3 December, the 151st anniversary of the brutal crushing of the Eureka rebellion. Over 500 nominations were received for the award, with the list reduced to ten finalists. Six people accepted the award.